In review: Highlights of what's playing at MSPIFF 2014

Updated
4/2/2014

Reviews and showtimes of more than 50 movies screening at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (April 3-19). All ratings are out of four stars; photos provided by respective film distributors.

ABOVE ALL ELSE ★★★

6:45 p.m. April 17; also 1:25 p.m. April 19 (USA)

A former daredevil/gymnast, David Daniel left his career to move his wife and newborn into the peaceful rural Eastern Texas country, where he discovered a real circus happening on his property. The Canadian oil company TransCanada started developing the 1,200-mile Keystone XL pipeline of crude oil, stretching from Alberta’s tar sands to the Gulf Coast, with Daniels putting up a fight. Director/photographer John Fiege follows Daniels and protesters in this timely, if at times one-sided, eco-doc that follows surveyors without permits creating havoc and students risking their lives in order to stop the construction of the controversial pipeline with silent resistance. (94 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

AFTERMATH ★★★½

7 p.m. April 10; also 5:10 p.m. April 16 (Poland)

After 20 years in America, Franek Kalina returns to his native Poland to find that his brother Jozef’s strange new hobby has lost him his family and turned him into the village pariah. Jozef has begun rescuing Jewish gravestones that had been desecrated by the Germans during the occupation and the Poles thereafter, a mission that Franek deems crazy but in which he finds himself getting further and further involved. Digging (sometimes literally) into the past unearths horrible truths about the townspeople and the Kalinas’ own family, with tragic results. A sense of dread suffuses this film, which offers yet another slice of World War II history. (107 min.)

CYNTHIA DICKISON

AFTERNOON OF A FAUN ★★★★

1:30 p.m. April 6; also 1:55 p.m. April 11 (USA)

“Tanny is mythic,” says dancer Jacques D’Amboise in “Afternoon of a Faun,” referring to Tanaquil le Clercq, the New York City Ballet dancer and subject of this absorbing documentary. In 1956, at the height of her powers, the 27-year-old Le Clercq was stricken with polio. She never walked again. Director Nancy Buirski unfolds Le Clercq’s life through a deft mix of interviews, riveting photographs (the camera adored Le Clercq’s coltish, Veruschka-like looks) and a haunting series of faraway-looking film clips that tap the ballerina’s singular aura, most notably in Jerome Robbins’ “Afternoon of a Faun.” Mythic, indeed. (87 minutes)

RICK NELSON

THE AUCTION ★★★

11:25 a.m. April 12; also 4:30 p.m. April 15 (Canada, in subtitled French)

Gaby Gagnon (the flinty, beatific, extremely watchable actor Gabriel Arcand) has had three days off in 40 years of working his sheep farm in rural Canada. Divorced for 20 years and with his two daughters grown and gone off to the city, Gaby spends his days mostly alone, feeding, moving and caring for his herd on a rolling piece of acreage. When one daughter hits him up for a hefty loan, his desire to help her out is so strong that he decides, against everyone’s advice, to sell the farm. Director Sébastien Pilote tells his story simply, and gets terrific, real-life performances from all of his actors. (111 min.)

CLAUDE PECK

BELLE ★★★

7 p.m. & 7:20 p.m. Thu. (April 3) (U.K.)

A lavish costume drama starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay, the daughter of a Royal Navy admiral and an African slave, who was the first mixed-race woman to be raised as an English aristocrat. The film is hardly short on ideas about race, class and gender as Belle navigates her way through the hierarchy of George III’s England. Belle is too wealthy to wed below her station, yet too exotic to marry a man of social standing. To the heroine’s Jane Austen-like romantic issues, the film adds courtroom drama. Belle’s stern but kindly uncle (Tom Wilkinson), the nation’s lord chief justice, will decide a milestone slavery case. The production values are sumptuous, with outstanding, painterly cinematography. The performances, from a top cast including Matthew Goode, Miranda Richardson, Tom Felton and Emily Watson, are predictably flawless. The luminous Mbatha-Raw more than holds her own. Directed by Amma Asante with highly capable craftsmanship. (104 mins.)

COLIN COVERT

BICYCLING WITH MOLIERE (Alceste à Bicyclette) ★★★½

5 p.m. April 15; also 4:40 p.m. April 19 (France)

Kinda like “The Trip,” only with Molière in place of salmon mousse. Old actor friends Gauthier (Lambert Wilson) and Serge (scene-stealer Fabrice Luchini) meet at a French vacation town in the off season. Gauthier, a rich TV actor, wants to stage Molière’s “The Misanthrope” with depressed, long-out-of-work Serge as his co-star. The rehearsal scenes, in which they flip a coin to see who will read Alceste and who Philinte, are priceless. Surrounding plot points and characters — a wannabe porn star, an Italian divorcée, who’s gaming whom — are icing on this charming cake. (104 min.)

CLAUDE PECK

BLUE RUIN ★★★½

9:40 p.m. April 18; also 9:45 p.m. April 19 (USA)

A ripping-good revenge flick with a radically simple premise: The man on the mission of vengeance is entirely unprepared for the task. Dwight (Macon Blair in a breakout performance) is an anti-badass, a mild-mannered beach bum protecting his estranged family from a clan of dangerous and well-armed criminals. Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier never spoon-feeds, trusting us to pick up plot details and motivations along the way. He extracts every drop of bile-black humor, Hitchcockian tension and stage blood with a skill that won him the FIPRESCI Best Director award at Cannes. Blair, with his mild demeanor and puppy-dog gaze, is mesmerizing as the amateur assassin. (90 min.)

COLIN COVERT

BORGMAN ★★★½

9:45 p.m. April 9; also 10:15 p.m. April 12 (Netherlands)

This awesomely bizarre deconstructionist home-invasion movie/religious allegory looks and feels like nothing of its ilk. The title refers to the main character, a bearded and disheveled vagrant who shows up at the front door of a well-off family asking for a bath. They refuse, and the funny games begin. A film that will frustrate and fascinate in equal measure, but is no doubt worth your time. Be ready to pay attention and theorize after the credits roll. For those who get on its wavelength, the rewards are ample and the desire to re-watch will take over. (113 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

BOYHOOD ★★★★

7 p.m. April 17 (USA)

Richard Linklater had been filming this ambitious project on and off since 2002, and it’s every bit worth the wait. This intimate domestic epic follows Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from first grade through his first year of college. It’s structured like a series of short films, each covering one of those 12 years. We watch as the characters grapple with life’s joys, compromises and discoveries. Amazingly, the time-lapse format never feels like a distraction. Watching Coltrane age in real time along with co-stars Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and scene-stealing brat Lorelei Linklater, we see deeper into their characters. It’s a humanist heartwarmer that celebrates just muddling through life as a heroic achievement. (163 min.)

COLIN COVERT

BREATHE IN ★★

9:55 p.m. April 4; also 7:20 p.m. April 7 (USA)

Despite two excellent lead performances by Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, “Breathe In,” never rises above its melodramatic Lolita-esque story line. The family dynamic of music teacher Keith (Pearce) and housewife Megan (an underused, Amy Ryan) is thrown off-kilter with the arrival of British exchange student Sophie (Jones), staying with them and their high-school daughter for the semester. When Keith discovers Sophie is an exceptional pianist, he begins pushing the boundaries of their new relationship, while pushing his family further away. Director Drake Doremus’ (“Like Crazy”) overwrought romance falters with a bland and predictable emotional connection. (98 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

BUZZARD ★★★½

9:30 p.m. April 17; also 6:30 p.m. April 19 (USA)

A brilliant conclusion to his animal trilogy (2010 short “Coyote” and 2012 feature “Ape”), writer/director Joel Potrykus’ latest low-budget feature is a challenging, hilarious and maddening story of “love-to-hate” office temp Marty (Joshua Burge), who passes his time pulling various scams. When Marty begins forging and cashing work checks, he discovers they can be traced, leading him down a path of further mischief and paranoia. He eventually hits the road, fleeing the police. More demented than “Napoleon Dynamite,” Potrykus’ deadpan script finds new themes in American capitalism and an imaginative way of eating Bugles. (97 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

CANNIBAL ★★★

9:50 p.m. April 5; also 9:45 p.m. April 14 (Spain/Romania/Russia/France)

After its creepy opening death scene, this deliberately slow-paced drama begins taking shape in writer/director Manuel Martin Cuenca’s oddly confident character study. Carlos (Antonio de la Torre) is the best tailor in beautiful Granada. He kills women, drains their blood and cooks them up for his consumption with no remorse. When Nina (Olimpia Melinte, in dual roles), the sister of one of his victims, shows up, Carlos begins to feel real affection for her. Cuenca’s mixture of beauty and grotesquerie brings enough edginess to Carlos’ murderous and loving ways. (116 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

COHERENCE ★★½

7 p.m. April 5; also 7:10 p.m. April 6 (USA)

Writer/director James Ward Byrkit’s sci-fi mystery is mystifying and frustrating. Four couples meet for a dinner party. Later that evening, a comet flies across the sky, the power goes out and weird and unsettling things begin to happen. Seeing a lone house down the street with its lights on, two men leave to call for help. When they return, even stranger revelations occur. Byrkit’s, story has plenty of twists and turns before losing credibility and momentum. An unsatisfactory conclusion ruins an engaging and promising idea. (89 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

CONCRETE NIGHT ★★★½

9:45 p.m. April 8; also 1:10 p.m. April 18 (Finland)

Black-and-white bleak never has looked more beautiful. Young Simo (the achingly open-faced Johannes Brotherus) spends a night wandering Helsinki’s meaner streets with his jaded-philosopher thug of an older brother before Bro, who wears sunglasses at night and makes pronouncements like “There is no one stronger than someone without hope,” heads off to jail. Director Pirjo Honkasalo and cinematographer Peter Flinckenberg create a shadowy, shimmering netherworld where lush dream sequences meld with stark reality as Simo shuffles hesitantly toward a violent climactic decision that, though predictable, still shocks in its execution. (96 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

DEATH TO PROM ★★½

5:30 p.m. April 6 (USA)

Like the girl who’s always voted Miss Congeniality, never the queen, this modern take on the classic teen love triangle tries so hard and gets so much right that you can’t help but root for it, even though the casts’ line delivery never lets you forget they’re acting. Good thing they’re all so darn likable. Shot entirely in and around the Twin Cities, this lighthearted, teen-targeted “promedy” follows gay fashion-crazy Rene and punky tomboy Frankie, BFFs who plan to go to prom together until each falls for the same guy, teen dream Sasha. Attention fashionistas: Christopher Straub designed some of the over-the-top gowns. (95 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

DESPITE THE GODS ★★

7:30 p.m. April 6; also 7:05 p.m. April 8 (Australia)

In 1993, at age 25, Jennifer Lynch (daughter of weirdmeister David) made “Boxing Helena”; to call it controversial would be a woeful understatement. It was 15 years before she directed another film, the better-received “Surveillance,” which encouraged her to take on what she calls the “comedy, horror, action-adventure, musical love story” called “Hisss.” “Despite the Gods” follows the cursed shoot in India, where Lynch encounters bad weather, worker strikes, a superstitious crew and the occasional unconscious actor. “Gods” is intermittently insightful about the logistics of shooting a film in the Third World, but mostly serves as an overwrought “woe-is-me” tale about a director in over her head. And “Hisss”? Over schedule and over budget, it was re-cut by producers — Lynch publicly distanced herself from it — and still took a critical drubbing. (85 min.)

CYNTHIA DICKISON

FLASHBACK MEMORIES ★★★★

6 p.m. April 9 (Japan)

A stunningly psychedelic technical achievement and one of the most danceable music documentaries since “Stop Making Sense,” this 3-D concert film of Japanese didgeridoo player Goma pushes the musician’s protruding instrument into the viewer’s lap and his harrowing back story into her brain. While Goma blows out propulsively trippy musical phrases in the third dimension, documentary images on a 2-D screen behind him tell the story of his traumatic brain injury and miraculous rehabilitation, at least to the point where his onstage delivery of thrillingly discursive jams again draws goose bumps. The effects of this beautifully unique hybrid of music and cinema are exhilarating and unforgettable. (72 min.)

ROB NELSON

FOR A WOMAN ★★★

11:05 a.m. April 13; also 4:50 p.m. April 17 (France)

Filmmaker Anne and her older sister, Tania, come across a strange man’s signet ring while sorting their mother’s belongings after her death in the 1980s. Old family photos spark Anne’s journey of discovery. She pictures her parents, lovely young blonde Lena and committed Communist tailor Michel Korsky, after the war in Lyon. The newlyweds met in the Rivesaltes camp, where Michel saved Lena’s life. The arrival of Michel’s mysterious, handsome and possibly dangerous younger brother, Jean, upends the domestic order. Director Diane Kurys paints an evocative, witty portrait of love, longing, ideology and desolation in post-World War II France. (110 min.)

MARCI SCHMITT

THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM ★★★

1:25 p.m. April 6; also 4:40 p.m. April 8 (Sesotho)

“Forgotten Kingdom” opens with some major Harmony Korine vibes — bustling Johannesburg, with booze-swilling, shoplifting, nightclubbing youth running amok. The party quickly ends for one of those youngsters, Atang Mokoenya (the fantastic, understated Zenzo Ngqobe), as he’s forced to return to his rural village to bury his estranged father. What begins out of callous necessity (and also includes plenty of heartless pawning), morphs into a soul-searching journey set in the jaw-dropping rural Lesotho landscape. Director Andrew Mudge’s expansive film combines death, romance, poverty, mysticism, philosophy and friendship while holding steadfast to its realism; it sticks with you. (98 min.)

JAY BOLLER

FOR NO GOOD REASON ★★½

7:30 p.m. April 12 (UK)

This portrait of artist Ralph Steadman, best known as illustrator for Hunter S. Thompson writings, works because the subject is such a sweet, amiable fellow. It’s just nice to spend time with him as he talks about his career, life and process. When we get to see him in action, splashing and blowing ink all over paper, the film really comes to life. Everything else, including the structural device of old friend Johnny Depp paying him a visit, seems a bit tossed-off and unremarkable. Perhaps the makers took the title too seriously. Nothing special, but enjoyable nonetheless. (89 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

GANGS OF WASSEYPUR (Parts 1 & 2) ★★★★

12:45 p.m. (part 1) and 3:55 p.m. (part 2) April 6 (India)

This two-part, five-hour epic is a powerful and stunning testament in Bollywood/Indian cinema and a treasure for American action/gangster cinephiles. Director Anurag Kashyap (whose “Ugly” is also screening at MSPIFF) creates a riveting portrayal of a 70-year feud between two families from the rival mining towns of Wasseypur and Dhanbad. Starting in 2004 with a final shootout and using flashbacks traveling back to 1941 when the feuding began, Kashyap’s direction is ferocious and mesmerizing, deftly balancing hundreds of characters, story lines and bloodshed that never apologizes or slows down. (Part 1 — 160 min., Part 2 – 159 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

GOOGLE AND THE WORLD BRAIN ★★

7:45 p.m. April 5; also 6 p.m. April 12 (UK)

Ben Lewis’ cautionary documentary about Google’s efforts to digitize all the world’s books is well-intended but poorly focused. It deals almost exclusively with chump-change copyright battles between the information giant and authors whose works — held at Google-friendly libraries like the University of Michigan — were included without their permission. That angle deflects attention from the book-scannning project’s real implications, the creation of artificial intelligence that could devastate the middle-class professions. Lewis leans heavily on sinister music and dystopian prophecies from H.G. Wells’ pessimistic last essay “Mind at the End of Its Tether” (available, by the way, on Google Books). (90 min.)

COLIN COVERT

HAIRY WHO & THE CHICAGO IMAGISTS ★★½

4 p.m. April 12; also 3:20 p.m. April 13 (USA)

Leaden narration almost wrecks a documentary on the worthwhile subject of the Imagist artists who had a 20-year run in Chicago that caught the attention of the wider art world. The biggest names are Ed Paschke and Jim Nutt, but there are more than a dozen others in the group that began exhibiting at the Hyde Park Art Center in 1965. Their work is characterized by vulgar, in-your-face imagery, figuration, comic-book worship, lurid colors, politics and subjectivity. While the film is discombobulated, and marred by subpar animation, it is partly redeemed by its recounting of the key players and their vivid work, and by interviews with those still alive. (109 min.)

CLAUDE PECK

HARMONY LESSONS ★★★½

5 p.m. April 7; also 4:30 p.m. April 10 (Kazakhstan)

The only first feature admitted to the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, this story of a shy, bright victim of intense bullying who starts to emulate the ugly behavior of his attackers in experiments on cockroaches is an impressive debut for young director Emir Baigazin. Thirteen-year-old Aslan, an affectless rural teen who we first meet impassively butchering a sheep, becomes a target of a school gang that shakes kids down for money they then pass along to adult criminals. Many scenes are almost too painful to watch, but Baigazin’s pacing, restraint and eye for depicting both internal and geographic desolation add up to a transfixing tragedy. (115 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

HELI ★★★

1:30 p.m. April 4; also 4:45 p.m. April 11 (Mexico)

Amat Escalante was named Best Director at last year’s Cannes Film Festival for this unflinching take on Mexico’s drug war and its repercussions on innocents unfairly tangled in its web. It deals with the issue in a circuitous way, delving into the lives of a working poor family. Heli lives with his wife and baby as well as his father and preteen sister. The sister is dating a police cadet who steals drugs during his training. Things spiral out of control. The imagery is equal parts ugly and beautiful as the tale descends into a nightmare most could never conceive. (105 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

ILO ILO ★★★½

1:05 p.m. April 5; also 4:40 p.m. April 17 (Singapore)

Mike Leigh fans will love the heart-tugging mix of domestic drama and humor in writer/director Anthony Chen’s feature debut, which won the Camera d’Or at Cannes. Set in Singapore, it’s a kitchen-sink chamber quartet featuring a hard-pressed middle-class couple, their bright but bratty young son and a Filipina woman they hire to help out. Rich with precisely observed detail, the film elicits sympathy but never pity for its characters — especially the pregnant mom, who becomes jealous of the growing bond between her troubled boy and the plucky maid he calls “Auntie Terry.” Young actor Koh Jia Ler’s brave performance recalls “The 400 Blows,” he’s that great. (96 min.)

TIM CAMPBELL

JUST A SIGH (Le Temps de l’Aventure) ★★★½

9:30 p.m. April 5; also 4:30 p.m. April 17 (France)

Jittery struggling actress of a certain age Alix (Emmanuelle Devos) exchanges glances with a handsome sad-eyed Londoner (Gabriel Byrne) on the train from Calais to Paris. They speak briefly, but she’s unable to give him directions to the church he’s seeking. After a discouraging audition, and unable to reach her longtime boyfriend after her cellphone battery dies, she impulsively tracks the man down at the funeral he’s attending, and then to his hotel room. He’s not frightened but bewitched. “Just a Sigh” charms, with its scenes of street musicians, philosophical debates and headstrong romance, as much as it poses dilemmas of fate and desire. (104 min.)

MARCI SCHMITT

THE KILL TEAM ★★★

9:30 p.m. April 9; also 5:45 p.m. April 14 (USA)

Those of us who aren’t a pivotal part of the military have very little idea what goes on when soldiers travel overseas. When Adam Winfield went to Afghanistan in 2009, he was shocked to find other soldiers killing civilians as a way to stave off boredom and channel their feelings of rage and fear. They had no idea war wasn’t like a video game. Winfield, whose father is a former Marine, felt compelled to say something, but nobody would listen. Then he participated in a kill, and the story moves quickly from there via interviews with Winfield, his family and others involved in the controversy. “The Kill Team” is emotionally heavy; as you watch, you feel conflicted about Winfield’s role and about your own perception of right and wrong. The documentary, directed by Dan Krauss, has swept recent film festivals, including TriBeCa. (79 min.)

KARA NESVIG

ME TOO (Ya Tozhe Khochu) ★★★

9:40 p.m. April 9; also 3:15 p.m. April 18 (Russia)

Lanky, taciturn musician Oleg meets cocky bandit Sanja at the banya, and they set off on a road trip in search of happiness with a couple of other sad sacks in tow. Along the way to an abandoned bell tower located in a wasteland where a Chernobyl-like nuclear accident killed all the locals instantly, they pick up a young prostitute, who eventually strips for no reason and runs around naked in the snow for what seems like forever. Aside from that annoyance, the film is a darkly pleasing, sometimes surreal parable shot through with thoroughly Russian attitude — and humor. As a herd of cattle crosses the road in the middle of the desolation, Oleg asks “Why didn’t the cows die? “ Sanja replies, “Because they are not people.” (83 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

METRO MANILA ★★★½

9:30 p.m. April 6; also 9:30 p.m. 8 (U.K.)

Pulling off a rare combination of affecting melodrama and nail-biting action, this sensitive crime thriller set in the Philippines follows a failed rice-grower, his pregnant wife and their two young daughters from the country to Manila, where Oscar (Jake Macapagal) eventually lands a job as an armored-truck driver and falls under the sway of his scheming partner (John Arcilla). Co-written and directed by British filmmaker Sean Ellis, the movie works as a contemporary look at desperation in crime-riddled Manila, but it’s also as deliciously old-fashioned as the late ’40s-era film noir “Kiss of Death,” and nearly as entertaining. (115 min.)

ROB NELSON

MYSTERY ROAD ★★

8:30 p.m. April 6; also 9:35 p.m. April 10 (Australia)

There’s a literal Mystery Road in “Mystery Road,” the updated western crime drama starring an indigenous Australian detective. There’s also a Slaughter Hill, Massacre Creek and zero hints of irony. Ham-fisted at times, the Ivan Sen-directed movie manages to unspool an engrossing story of murder and drugs set in the beautifully captured outback. It’s there that Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen), actualizing his stoicism via a constipated deadpan, investigates a crime that hits too close to his broken family. As a straight-up, “Law & Order”-esque criminal investigation, it’s watchable. But lingering shots and half-baked racial commentary overstate the importance of “Mystery Road.” (118 min.)

JAY BOLLER

MY SWEET PEPPER LAND ★★★

7:10 p.m. April 8; 2 p.m. April 11 (France/Germany/Iraq)

Here’s something new: A Kurdish spaghetti western. Director Hiner Saleem brings wit and style to his mini-saga of two contemporary freedom fighters in Iraq’s wild, wild north. The scenery is breathtaking, and so are his stars: Turkish actor Korkmaz Arslan, playing a stoic Charles Bronson type who literally arrives on horseback to bring order to a lawless border town, and Iran’s glowing Golshifteh Farahani, as the village teacher. Both run afoul of a corrupt tribal lord. The film’s outcome may be predictable, and its framework decidedly retro, but the themes are anything but, including a healthy dose of feminism. (100 min.)

TIM CAMPBELL

THE OVERNIGHTERS ★★★½

Jesse Moss’ you-are-there documentary views the downside of North Dakota’s oil boom through the experiences of Williston’s Pastor Jay Reinke. He opens the doors of his Concordia Lutheran Church to homeless job seekers, offering temporary sanctuary. Allowing them to sleep overnight in the facility turns out to be a divisive legal issue, and the film shows the community’s struggle to cope with the busloads of strangers arriving daily. Reinke’s philosophy of charitable outreach alienates much of his congregation, and shrouds his own personal struggles. The film features stunning third-act revelations that compel viewers to rethink its characters’ actions and motivations. (90 min.)

COLIN COVERT

PROXY ★★★

9:45 p.m. April 8; also 9:45 p.m. April 14 (USA)

Not for the faint of heart, this horrific drama opens with an act of unflinching violence so brutal it will send some heading for the doors. But there’s more going on in director Zack Parker’s fourth feature than just shocks. The fun (if you can call it that) of watching it is in succumbing to its narrative unpredictability. The story will keep you on edge as to where it’s actually going, and the character reveals peel back layers of disturbing behavior hidden beneath a sunny, suburban facade. Genre mashups are tough to pull off, but “Proxy” mostly does it. (120 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

R100 ★★★

11 p.m. April 5; also 10:15 p.m. April 13 (Japan)

To call this Midnight Movie entry “not for everyone” is understating it. But connoisseurs of weird, twisted sex comedy will revel in its transgressive, audacious mischief. Hitoshi Matsumoto’s film follows a milquetoast salaryman who enlivens his dull existence by signing a yearlong contract with a strange S & M escort agency. The firm dispatches dominatrixes to dish out comically harsh thrashings in public, at work, even at home. He should have read the contract’s fine print: There’s no escape clause. Nao Ohmori underplays deliciously as the hapless client even as the film opens up outrageous new subplots and metafictional detours that further multiply the lunacy. (100 min.)

COLIN COVERT

THE ROCKET ★★★

4:45 p.m. April 7; also 6:45 p.m. April 14 (Australia/Thailand/Laos)

For a while, this story — about a young Laotian boy cursed with bad luck who sets out to build a rocket in order to win a local competition — seems like it’s wallowing in misery just to rub the audience’s nose in it. But then its true crowd-pleasing nature reveals itself, which will no doubt leave the audience smiling as the credits roll. In some ways, it feels like a throwback to many ’80s teen movies, where everything comes down to a competition at the end, and the hero will finally get the chance to prove his worth. (96 min.)

ERIK MCCLANAHAN

SAGRADA: THE MYSTERY OF CREATION ★

11:05 a.m. April 5; also 6:30 p.m. April 13 (Switzerland)

The never-ending construction of one of the Western world’s greatest modern wonders, the towering fantasy cathedral La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, has potential to yield a new and fascinating story with each turn of its vertigo-inducing winding staircases. The grand final dream of eccentric visionary architect Gaudi, the century-old project is a noble testament to the wishes of Barcelona’s favorite son. But the only mystery here is why, even for architecture geeks, this documentary is duller than watching stucco dry. (89 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

SALVO ★★★

9:20 p.m. April 14; 9:50 p.m. April 18 (Italy)

It’s not the tale, but the telling of it, that distinguishes this Sicilian drama. “Salvo” is the name of a mob gunman who forges an unlikely relationship with the blind sister of a rival criminal, but it also suggests a sense of salvation, or healing, achieved by film’s end. What’s remarkable is how the film engages the senses, sustaining a mood with sound and imagery, and minimal dialogue. We first see Salvo as a pair of eyes in a rearview mirror — the eyes of a predator. Much of the action is heard through the woman’s ears: a struggle, a man being strangled, a grave being dug. Then, finally, a boat horn that marks the end for one character, and a new beginning for another. (104 min.)

TIM CAMPBELL

SHARON ISBIN: TROUBADOUR ★★

7:30 p.m. April 4; also 1:45 p.m. April 6 (USA)

“Sharon Isbin: Troubadour” is an odd and inadequate title for an hourlong, TV-style documentary about one of the world’s preeminent classical guitarists. Directed by PBS veteran Susan Dangel, it feels a bit like a hagiography, with gratuitous testimonials from the likes of Martina Navratilova and Janis Ian (neither of whom is identified by name). But this work will be of compelling local interest because Isbin is from St. Louis Park (Minneapolis, according to the film), and her early breaks were related to Minnesota Orchestra competitions. The woman who once dreamed of becoming a rocket scientist talks about how in the guitar world she had to fight as a woman, and how in the classical world she had to fight as a guitarist. Fearless, pushy and persistent, she has become a virtuoso. (60 min.)

JON BREAM

THE SKELETON TWINS ★★★

7 p.m. April 19 (USA)

In the same way that “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” redefined Jim Carrey, this affecting and poignant drama-with-laughs shatters your expectations of Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig. The SNL alums play long-estranged siblings who still carry the childhood scars of their father’s suicide. There are laughs, to be sure, but the movie’s themes of abuse, infidelity and self-destructive impulsiveness are played straight. Wiig is compelling as a sexually compulsive woman sabotaging her marriage to a plain-vanilla regular Joe (Luke Wilson). Hader reveals new depths as her witty but depressive gay brother. Writer/director Craig Johnson’s script won the Sundance screenwriting award. (90 min.)

COLIN COVERT

STAY THEN GO ★★★

7 p.m. April 4 (USA)

At first, Minneapolis filmmaker Shelli Ainsworth’s semi-autobiographical look at what it’s like to be the mother of a young man with autism seems like a slight if touching tale whose audience might not reach far past those who share the same experience. But a didn’t-see-that-coming surprise kicks things up a notch, and subtle performances by Janel Moloney (“The West Wing”) as the mother, Marion, and Matt Kane as her son, Eddie, elevate the story to a more nuanced reflection on parenting, sacrifice, grief and letting go. (103 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

THE SYSTEM ★★½

6:45 p.m. April 6 (Minnesota-made)

A cynic could argue that “The System,” a Minnesota-made comedy that personifies and politicizes the internal goings-on of the human body, is “The Magic School Bus” for liberal arts graduates. That’s not to diminish Cristina Cordova and Juan Antonio del Rosario’s supremely creative film, one that follows a rogue neuron protagonist and his Manic Pixie Dream Girl blood cell cohort. Together they traverse the body to save it from itself, as a sometimes clunky war wages between the Cerebellum (that cunning, corrupt corporate giant) and the Union (those blood-and-guts workmen). Bonus: loads of Twin Cities arts scene cameos, plus Jason DeRusha (?!). (90 min.)

JAY BOLLER

THE TRIP TO ITALY ★★★½

7:15 p.m. April 10; also 9:15 p.m. April 13 (UK/Italy)

British comedians and dueling partners Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are back in this witty and incisive follow-up to “The Trip.” The globe-trotting gourmands eat their way across Italy amid much sparkling banter. Much of the joking is aimed at keeping midlife angst at bay. Notorious womanizer Coogan realizes that repairing his relationship with his seldom-seen son is his top priority, while Brydon sails into warm, Mediterranean waters of infidelity. Along the way they ponder subjects as varied as Batman’s vocal register, the artistic merits of “Jagged Little Pill” and, of course, the virtue of sequels. (115 min.)

COLIN COVERT

UGLY ★★½

7:35 p.m. April 5; also 9:20 p.m. April 8 (India)

On a crowded Mumbai street, a young girl disappears from a car as her divorced father, a wannabe actor, is taking a meeting nearby with his casting-director pal. It appears she’s been kidnapped, possibly by someone hoping that mom’s new man, a high-ranking cop, will pay the ransom. As this standard psychological thriller unfolds, it’s hard to tell whether director Anurag Kashyap (previously acclaimed at Cannes for the two-part crime epic “Gangs of Wasseypur,” also playing at this fest) is intentionally damning ever-encroaching Western values or if canned iPhone rings truly have become the most recognizable sound in the world. Don’t expect a Hollywood ending — there’s no one to champion among this sorry lot of soulless connivers. (128 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

VIOLETTE ★★★½

7 p.m. April 18 (France)

A protégée of Simone de Beauvoir, the French author Violette Leduc (“The Bastard”) went from peddling meat on the black market during World War II to writing searingly and unabashedly about topics that were très tabou for women to broach in the 1940s and ’50s, especially female sexual desire. Emmanuelle Devos captures Leduc’s complicated torments without overplaying them, and Sandrine Kiberlain’s buttoned-up De Beauvoir provides the perfect foil. Appearances by Leduc contemporaries Jean Genet and self-made perfume mogul Jacques Guérin add entertaining historical side notes, but director Martin Provost wisely keeps Sartre in the shadows. Not since Jane Campion’s “Angel at My Table” has there been such a moving and meticulously crafted period biopic about a tortured feminist writer who deserves wider recognition. (139 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

WALTZ FOR MONICA ★★★

5:05 p.m. April 5; also 4:15 p.m. April 9 (Sweden)

Stylish and sexy, “Waltz for Monica” is a biopic about the late Swedish jazz singer and actress Monica Zetterlund (radiant Edda Magnason), tracing her trajectory from small-town telephone switchboard operator to troubled star in the early 1960s. A gig singing jazz standards in New York City ends in failure after a racist audience reaction to the beautiful blonde’s appearance with a black male trio, but leads to an encounter with Ella Fitzgerald, who advises Monica to sing about her own life. Back in Sweden, she starts performing in her native tongue, winning fans and fame. “Waltz” flirts with “Behind the Music” territory but stays engaging. (111 min.)

MARCI SCHMITT

WHEN JEWS WERE FUNNY ★★★

5 p.m. April 8; also 1 p.m. Apr. 13 (Canada)

Having completed his trilogy of nakedly personal comedic documentaries, including “I, Curmudgeon,” Jewish Canadian filmmaker Alan Zweig here goes back to the source. Even the title of this playfully fretful investigation into the meaning of Jewish humor is a joke — and a Jewish one, too, to the extent that, as several of the film’s interviewees argue, kvetching with an inner grin is what it’s all about. Aptly enough, Zweig’s movie is equal parts witty and provocative, as when David Steinberg (pictured) opines, “The thing that helps humor is oppression; the thing that kills humor is assimilation.” That’s a joke, no? (89 min.)

ROB NELSON

WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL? ★★★

10:15 p.m. April 11; also 10:15 p.m. April 17 (Japan)

Everybody wants to be famous, and mob boss Muto wants nothing more than for his imprisoned wife to see their daughter shine on-screen. He enlists a ragtag team of gonzo filmmakers to help him with his quest. Of course, nothing goes quite according to plan, with an old yakuza feud coming back to light as his sworn enemy falls for his pretty daughter. Doesn’t it suck when that happens? Director Shion Sono wrote “Why Don’t You Play in Hell?” 15 years ago, and its classic “movie within a movie” plot is totally violent and charmingly romantic at the same time. It’s a movie that feels perfectly at home in 2014, but wouldn’t feel out of place in any other decade. (126 min.)

KARA NESVIG

WICKER KITTENS ★★½

7 p.m. April 8; also 5:45 p.m. April 9 (USA)

No other film in the fest this year could possibly evoke stereotypical Minnesotan-ness more than this look inside the driven psyches of competitive jigsaw puzzlers prepping for their annual showdown at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. From the group of banged and be-cardiganed girlfriends who celebrate with a jigsaw-decorated cake to the Iowa legislator whose passion for puzzlin’ rivals that of politics, the characters in this short-’n’-sweet documentary are straight outta “Fargo,” in the best sense. (52 min.)

KRISTIN TILLOTSON

WITCHING AND BITCHING (Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi) ★★½

9:45 p.m. April 10; also 10:30 p.m. April 12 (Spain)

Remember when Rob Zombie made horror movies? They toed the line between pure terror, camp and high comedy, which is what director Alex de la Iglesia does so well with “Witching and Bitching.” The high-octane pace, insane cast of characters and murky colors of this film gave me some serious Rob Z vibes. Two men down on their luck commit a robbery (they steal a bunch of wedding rings!) and go on the run, only to wind up as prey for a coven of witches who are out for their blood. “Witching and Bitching” is not high art by any means, but it is pretty entertaining if you like a good slice of crazy horror-movie fun once in awhile. (104 min.)

KARA NESVIG

A WOLF AT THE DOOR ★★½

9:40 p.m. April 10; also 9:25 p.m. April 12 (Brazil)

When Sylvia goes to pick up her 6-year-old daughter from school she learns another woman has picked up Clara. Sylvia’s husband, Bernardo, is brought in for questioning. He confesses to the police that he has been having an affair with another woman, Rosa, who may be responsible for kidnapping Clara. Based on true events, this Rio de Janeiro-set thriller opens and ends promisingly, but struggles to keep its nerve-racking tension consistent throughout. It never comes undone, thanks in large part to writer/director Fernando Coimbra’s stylistic flashbacks and the unfolding of terrifying scenarios. (100 min.)

JIM BRUNZELL III

A YEAR IN CHAMPAGNE ★★½

4:45 p.m. April 16; also 7:10 p.m. April 19 (France)

Opening with a hot-air balloon ride over the fields on winemaker Xavier Gonet’s 40th birthday, this energetic documentary explores Champagne — the French region and the sexy sparkling wine. In 2012, a hot April gave way to a cold, rainy summer. From boutiques to big names, producers had to rely on hard work and lucky breaks. “A Year in Champagne” shows the area’s tragic history and stringent winemaking techniques, as well as gorgeous views of the countryside and caves full of bottles. But the large number of subjects, plus a lack of information about them printed on screen, may make you feel like you’ve had a glass too many. (82 min.)

MARCI SCHMITT

YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL ★★★

7 p.m. April 13; also 9:30 p.m. April 19 (France)

Only the French could produce a film like this. If you have a fondness for their cinema, then you shouldn’t pass this one up. It’s a coming-of-age tale about Isabelle (Marine Vacth, for whom the film’s title is an understatement), who, after losing her virginity during summer vacation, embarks on a “Belle du Jour”-esque career of high-priced prostitution. The sexuality is frank and director François Ozon’s gaze is obsessed with his protagonist’s unbelievable gorgeousness. It’s a balanced and honest look at young sexuality, and thankfully never didactic in its approach. (94 min.)